Experiment 7: Rate Laws Kinetic Studies of a Bleaching Reaction

By Chantelle Lim (Lab Partner: Nicole Hesse)

Introduction
The purpose of this experiment is to carry out a kinetics experiment to determine the rate
constant value of a bleaching reaction of food dyes, using sodium hypochlorite and also whether
this process is a zero order, first order, or second order rate equations. We used the pseudo rate
law concept to determine k and m. We used two different food dyes in our experiments: Blue
and Green.
Literature reference: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed075p1142 The Reaction of a Food
Colorant with Sodium Hypochlorite
Experiments performed
Info: Bleach: 0.6%
We carried out 2 experiments for each food dye.
Blue#1
- We first measured the rate of reaction using the original concentration of bleach, which is
0.6%. We then lowered the concentration of bleach to 0.4% which is 1.5 times lower,
then we measured the rate of reaction
Volume of dye (mL)
Volume of water (mL)
Volume of bleach (mL)
2
0
1.5
2
0.5
1.0

Green
- Observations: Green food dye looks blue when in cuvette. Color changes from Blue
Light blue Faint green Clear solution
- We first measured the rate of reaction using the original concentration of bleach, which is
0.6%. We then lowered the concentration of bleach to 0.4% which is 1.5 times lower,
then we measured the rate of reaction
Volume of dye (mL)
2
2

Volume of water (mL)

0
0.5

Volume of bleach (mL)

1.5
1.0

[Blue#1] vs Time

Through plotting these 3

graphs, I was able to
conclude that the
reaction is 1st order with
respect to [Blue#1],
because the plot of
ln[Blue#1] as a function
of time is a straight line
graph. Using the
equation, ln[Blue#1] =
-k1t + ln[Blue#1]0 I was
able to determine the k1
value, which is the
slope of the graph
(y=mx+c), which is
0.0203

[Blue#1]

1/[Blue#1] vs Time

k1=k*[OCI-]n
0.0203=k*0.0403M
k= 0.5037M-1sec-1

f(x) =
R = 0

ln [Blue#1] vs Time
12
10
8

ln[Blue#1]

6
4
2
0

0 f(x) = 50
R = 0

100

150

Time (s)

200

250

I have included an
adjustment factor of
-0.007 for the
baseline correction
so that my R2 value
is as close as
possible to 1.

Adjusted ln[Blue#1] vs Time

f(x) =
R = 0

Slope = -kI = 0.015

Adjusted ln[Blue#2] vs Time

0
50
100
150
-20
-4
-6
-8
ln [Blue#2]
-10
-12
-14 f(x) = - 0.02x - 12.47
-16 R = 1
-18

Time (s)

200

250

The data above shows that

the value of k' decreases by
a factor of 1.35 when the
concentration of OCLdecreases by a factor of 1.5,
and thus the reaction is firstorder with respect to OCl-.
This graph is a straight-line
graph thus we can conclude
that this reaction is first
order.

Through plotting these 3

graphs, I was able to
conclude that the
reaction is 1st order with
respect to [Green#1],
because the plot of
ln[Green#1] as a
function of time is a
straight line graph.
Using the equation,
ln[Green#1] = -k1t +
ln[Green#1]0 I was able
to determine the k
value, which is the
slope of the graph
(y=mx+c), which is
0.0168

[Green#1] vs Time

1/[Green#1] vs Time
50000000
40000000
30000000

1/[Green#1] 20000000
10000000
0

100

200

300

400

350

400

Time (s)

ln [Green#1] vs Time
0

50

100

150

200

f(x) = - 0.02x - 11.55

R = 1

Time (s)

250

300

The k value is
somewhat similar to the
k value of blue dye. The
difference in values
could be due to the
spectrophotometers were
functioning abnormally
during our experiment as
Slope =the
-kI absorbance
= 0.0188 levels
kept fluctuating and
were should
all over the place.
The k value
Thus,
ableof
to 1.35
achieve
decrease by a to
factor
a linear
graph with
when the
concentration
of
somewhatbysimilar
k
OCL- decreases
a factor
values
of 1.5, but
due show
to that our
experiment
still
experimental
error, was
the k
value issuccessful.
inaccurate.
However, This graph is a
straight-line graph thus we
can conclude that this
reaction is first order. The
absorption at 630nm is 1st
order and this is what
contributes to the green
color of the dye, and not the
440nm absorption as it is
mostly constant throughout
the whole experiment and
does not change with
respect to the green color of
the dye fading as time
progresses, therefore it is 0
order reaction.

Adjusted ln [Green#2]

f(x) =
R = 0

Time
(sec)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240

Recorded
absorbance @
440nm
0.033
0.023
0.02
0.028
0.025
0.026
0.025
0.025
0.025
0.026
0.025
0.027
0.028
0.025
0.025
0.023
0.027
0.026
0.024
0.027
0.025
0.025
0.027
0.027
0.025

250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350

0.023
0.025
0.025
0.024
0.028
0.05
0.026
0.025
0.027
0.028
0.028

Green food dye has 2 absorption wavelengths: @630nm and 440nm. This is because green color
is made up of blue and yellow colors, where blue color wavelength is 440nm and yellow color
wavelength is 630nm.